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Evernote Portable: Install Evernote on a USB Thumb Drive

Another handy feature of Evernote I just discovered is the ability to easily install it on a USB thumb drive. This would allow you to take all of your notes with you anywhere easily. The main advantage here is if you have an Internet connection some of the time but not all of the time and you would need access to those notes with or without the Internet connection. Evernote Portable would allow you continue to update those notes via the USB thumb drive and then synchronize with the Evernote system at a later date. Below I will describe how to install Evernote Portable on a USB drive and list some of the details regarding the new installation.

**NOTE** Please checking Bill’s comments in the comment section below. He states that the directions below will not work with the current version of Evernote and lists steps how to complete the Evernote Portable install on a thumb drive using the newest version.

First you should know that your settings from the desktop version of Evernote will not transfer over to the Evernote Portable installation. Since Evernote doesn’t have *that many configuration options its not really a huge deal though I wanted to note it in case there are specific options you needed to look at before leaving with the USB drive and no options.The other thing to note is that Evernote Portable on a USB thumb drive states that it will only work on Windows XP and Windows Vista so make sure your plans include using the Portable version on either of these Windows versions.

On a side note I read an article tonight which was one of the first times I heard someone complaining about Evernote and I was suprised they were complaining about the yearly $45 fee for the premium version. In my opinion Evernote is a pretty amazing product for free and on top of that the $45 fee is more than reasonable for a yearly fee. My response to someone complaining about that would be to just use your Windows provided notebook if that fee is to high because all of the features including online storage and syncing are super reasonable for that price.

Install Evernote Portable on a USB Drive:

Open Evernote: First make sure your Evernote desktop version is open and that the USB thumb drive is attached to your Windows XP or Windows Vista computer where the Evernote desktop version is running.

Install Evernote Portable: First click on Tools in the top navigation menu and then select “Install Evernote Portable” from the drop down menu as shown in the below image.

Install Location: Once you have clicked on “Install Evernote Portable” a new window will open as shown below that will require you to select the install location for the application.

If you have the USB thumb drive plugged into your computer then Evernote should default to the drive letter of the thumb drive such as the above example image where the USB thumb drive letter is “E:”.

Install Process: Once the Evernote Portable install location has been entered above (using the default is typically OK) then you will click the OK button to begin the installation process as shown below.

The installation process is super quick and once completed will open a window as shown below that will state the installation is complete and it will ask if you want to quit the desktop version and run the Evernote Portable version instead.

Synchronize and Configure Options: Once launched you should go ahead and synchronize the notes to start as shown below.

***NOTE:You can synchronize Evernote or Evernote Portable using F9 or by clicking the Synchronize button located at the top right of Evernote after you log into the application.

Once you have synchronized the notes make sure that the application has recognized your premium account if you have already purchased this. You may have to close the application and synchronize numerous times before the application synchronizes your account type if you do actually have a premium account.

Now that the notes are synchronized and the proper account type is showing you can make any other configuration changes you would like to. One typical configuration option as shown below will be to make it so advertisements do not show in the bottom of the left hand column of your Evernote Portable installation.

Just make sure that the check is removed from the box next to “Show advertisements and promotions” and then click OK to save your changes.

Verify USB Drive With Evernote Portable: Now shutdown the Evernote Portable application and remove the USB drive from your PC. If you have another Windows XP or Windows Vista PC then it is worth plugging in the USB drive to verify that Evernote Portable will work wi thout issue. No matter what folder you installed Evernote Portable into there should be a Evernote shortcut in the top directory of your USB thumb drive as shown below.

So once the USB drive is plugged into the other computer simply navigate to the USB thumb drive letter and click on the Evernote shortcut. Evernote Portable should launch and log you in depending on if you saved the username and password.

That is all you have to do unless there are further configuration options you want to make. Your Evernote notes are now available online or offline via that thumb drive for easy traveling! Remember to synchronize often and verify that synchronization is successful from time to time and you should never lose any notes again!

Thanks. I haven’t required installing Evernote portable since the new version was released. I am going to make a note in the article above to check the comments below so others trying to install the new version on a thumb drive will make sure to see your comments. Thanks for taking the time to post these details!

The Evernote application no longer offers the portable version because of issues with .NET. I read in a forum post on Evernote’s web site that this link may help you figure out if you could create a portable version based on what version of Windows you are running and what version of .NET is installed.

I copied this to my flash drive from another computer, removed it from this one and the application returns the error: “can’t connect to server” I just want to use this without accessing the web. The company has the app blocked. I cannot even log on using the web version!

So are you saying that the issue is now resolved once you copied the Evernote data along with the app? Evernote used to provide a portable version that would install perfectly on a USB drive however I believe they have removed that download from their site for some reason. Would be curious to hear what ends up resolving your issue for good if copying the data did not resolve it.

This article is fairly old and I believe that Evernote has changed Evernote Portable. I plan to look into it in the next couple of months and write another article however if you find a solution we would love to hear what it is.

I can confirm that copying Evernote 4.2′s Program Files folder (of the old computer) to a USB drive, then running Evernote.exe (on the new computer), works as a portable app in Windows XP Service Pack 3.

It would also help to copy the Databases folder from the Local Settings profile folder (of the old computer) to the USB folder. When I launched Evernote.exe from the USB drive (on the new computer), synchronization started on the hard drive (of the new computer), instead of the USB drive. Immediately go to Tools, Options, and change “Evernote local files” to the USB folder. That will stop and restart synchronization into the USB folder. Thanks.